Marketing a luxury purchase as "eco-friendly" is a quick way to spark criticism. Kim Anderson, owner of Plant City in Providence, Rhode Island, was at the center of a Reddit discussion over exactly that after purchasing a $6.4 million yacht, which she offered for charter at $100,000 per week.
Part of the controversy stemmed from Anderson's own posts. After requesting anonymity for a tour of her ship, she shared updates about the yacht on her Facebook page, hyping its solar power and electric capabilities.
The listing for Anderson's boat on Epic Yacht Charters adds to the scrutiny, framing the vessel as "silent luxury and the future of sustainability and technology," promising "clean power yachting," and describing "carefully selected materials, systems, and practices place people and the planet first."
But framing yachts as sustainable is highly questionable. Even with solar panels, yachts primarily rely on diesel engines. Depending on their size and speed, yachts can burn dozens to hundreds of gallons of fuel per hour, according to YATCO, with large vessels similar in scale to Anderson's catamaran releasing significant pollution into the atmosphere.
Globally, the shipping sector — which includes leisure yachts — accounts for nearly 3% of all heat-trapping gas emissions, and yachts are recognized as particularly fuel-intensive luxury assets within that sector.
Critics point out that solar panels and electric propulsion systems can reduce fuel use and pollution, but they don't eliminate them. And yachts depend almost exclusively on fossil fuel engines as their primary power sources.
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These concerns about the environmental impact of yachts were echoed in the discussion.
"Honestly the thing I'm most mad about here is the marketing for that yacht. Those solar panels really aren't doing much. What they don't mention is the 20,000 liters of diesel this thing burns. It sure isn't moving very far with just solar power. The term 'eco' has lost most meaning, but branding an 80‑ft yacht as such seems especially brazen," one Redditor wrote.
"Justifying using an ungodly amount of energy for luxury stuff by spending a fortune to get 10% of its energy from solar panels," another commented.
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